Our Stories
by gojitenks
Summary: A series of stories from the survivor of Judgement Day.
1. Chapter 1

Nathan Evans

"Nathan Evans is my name. I lived in the state of Texas. I remember vividly to this day everything that had happened the day the bombs fell and covered the Earth in darkness, the time was 6:18 p.m.. I was 17 at the time. Before all of that, I was upstairs playing my PS2 when I got a call from Kevin Rice, a friend of mine since elementary school. He was a year older then me. He told he had gotten the new Tekken game and wanted me to come by. I told my parents where I was going and they gave their approval. Mom told me that my sister Jamie was out with her boyfriend and would not be back for tonight. I already knew what was going down between those two, and you do to so I won't go into detail. I got into my car, a blue Taurus, put the car into reverse, and drove down the street. I arrived at Kevin's house about fifteen minutes later. We went upstairs into his room and he popped in the game. We played for hours, with me using Paul, him using Heihachi. After I lost I put the controller on the floor and looked outside for awhile to rest my eyes. I then saw something glimmer in the sky. I called to Kevin and told him to look in the sky. He saw it to and told me we should go in the shelter his parents had built two years back. I asked him what for and he told me just a feeling he had. I thought he was nuts but I listened anyway. I'm glad I did, otherwise I'd be extra crispy. The shelter had everything. A radio for calling out and listening, a restroom, food, a year supplies worth, guns, grenades, first aid kits, beds. His parents didn't fuck around, and I'm glad they didn't, for our sakes. I remember how violently the ground shook and Kevin and I held on to the walls for support. After it stopped, there was silence. Horrific, muted silence. We didn't say a word to each other for hours, as we were listening for sounds above. There was a single noise, my stomach. I walked over to the canned goods and opened a can of grapefruits. I ate them slowly, still listening and worrying. My thoughts were on my sister and my parents. Where they alright? We're they killed in the explosion? I hoped not. Looking at Kevin who was looking at the door above, I could tell he was thinking the same thing.

After I finished eating, I turned on the radio and began tuning into frequencies. All I got was static. The next few weeks after that seemed like forever. Kevin and I got into an argument one day. We settled down though, arguing wouldn't make the situation at hand any better. We were tensed, thinking about our families and friends. We soon heard General Connor's voice on the radio. With relief, we hurried over to the radio, but he was only on for about twenty seconds. He told us who unleashed the bombs on us. A program called SkyNet. It would soon send out machines to look for survivors to either kill, or enslave. Kevin and I looked at each with fear in our eyes. This couldn't be right, the government should be sending out FEMA or somebody else to help. And a program built to kill people? It was just unbelievable! But sadly we soon realized we would have to help ourselves for now. We turned off the radio after he warned us to keep radio silence as SkyNet was capable of tracing radio frequencies. He also said where to go. Crystal Peak, a shelter where survivors were gathering. After the warning, his voice was gone and there was only static. I turned off the radio. I looked at Kevin who wore the mask of fear on his face. I couldn't blame him either."

"We have to go outside and look for survivors," I told him.

"Ok, but my first thought is my parents and sisters."

"Of course."

We walked up the stairs and slowly opened the door. What we saw outside made the tears run down. Every green thing was gone. The trees, the grass, the plants, everything. We saw dead bodies baked in the yard and in the street. The sky was dark as night, it was only 10 in the morning.

"Oh my God….," was all Kevin could mutter. We walked about five minutes down the street when we saw an Explorer. We walked up to it and found that the keys were still in the ignition and undamaged. We got in and I drove. After about two minutes we saw someone from our school walking down the street. It was Joe Faultz, one of the asshole jocks in the school. He and his football team of assholes were always picking on people to make themselves look better, now look at him. He flagged us down and we pulled over. He was battered and bruised. His red shit torn and ripped as well as his jeans. His head was bleeding and he still had his Clover High School jacket on, which was burnt and beat up. It also had dried blood on the white sleeves of the jacket. He got in the car and laid down in the back seat.

"Joe are alright?" I asked him.

"What does it looked like?!" he snapped.

"Anyone with you?" Kevin asked.

"They were. Some machines came from nowhere and started shooting up the gym. About five of them. I don't remember what happened after that, just had to get out of there."

That was exactly what General Connor said would happen. The machines were out and were looking for survivors to enslave or kill. I drove back to the shelter and locked the door behind us. We treated Joe's wounds and bandaged them the best we could. My mother was a nurse so knew a few things about healing and treating the wounded. We told Joe about what was happening and he buried his head in his hands. First a nuclear strike now machines were killing everyone, it was enough to make anyone break down.

"Survivors gathered at what was left of the high school. We all stayed there for about a week. Last Thursday somebody came in screaming for help. He'd been shot by machines he told us. We couldn't believe what he said until they burst in after he was ripped apart by their firepower. We scattered and ran. Bullets were flying everywhere. I can still see the people dropping around me, blood flying everywhere. It was so fucking horrible man!"

He began crying. I patted his back. Joe was a bully in high school this much was certain, but the recent events had humbled him greatly. We told Joe our story and he listened. We fed him and nursed him back to at least half strength before we set out again two days later. We were armed with shotguns and grenades. Our plan right now was to find survivors, bring them back to shelter, and nurse them. The machines didn't know about our shelter yet, which was good. We found three women and we brought them back to our shelter. Once again, we encountered no machines. Luck was serving us well. Their names were Melinda Creeks, Heather King, and Savanna Cole. Heather was healthy, only a few cuts and bruises, Savanna as well. Melinda hadn't been so fortunate. She'd been shot by the machines in her left arm. Heather was an accountant at a business I knew not where, Savanna was a college student and Melinda was a worker at Best Buy. They each had terrible stories for us after we fed them and treated them.

"We can't stay here for long," Joe said sternly. "they'll find us eventually like they did at the school."

"But we are underground and as long we keep silent we'll be okay. And also the door is covered to make it blend with the ground," Kevin said reassuringly.

"We also have food here," Heather added.

Joe nodded his head, and so we stayed for another two days, never leaving the shelter. I woke up one night to the sound of someone talking. I found Melinda by the radio talking through the receiver. I got up quickly and turned off the radio.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" I yelled at her.

"I'm trying to get help! I can't be in down here any longer!" she snapped back. I told her that SkyNet could trace radio frequencies and she just put us in danger of being traced. Everyone else looked at her like she was the most stupidest person in the world. Half an hour later we heard footsteps outside. This woke everyone up and Kevin quickly motioned for everyone to be silent and to grab the nearest weapon. We all took shotguns and grenades and listened. They began to kick the door in, and my heart began pumping madly. Joe, Kevin, and I walked up to the door, aiming and preparing to fire, and fire we did. No sooner did they wrench the door from the hinges we saw those metal faces of death. Terminators! We opened fire as soon as we saw them. They were thrown back by our combined fire power. Three of them they were.

"Go fucking go!" Joe yelled.

We ran out of the shelter and bolted for the Explorer. Our hearts sank when we saw it was destroyed. They wanted to cut off all means escape.

"No! God no!" I heard Heather yell aloud.

"This way!" I yelled pointing north towards the woods. I hoped we could lose them there. I doubted it though, as there were no leaves or bushes to cover us. We ran at speeds we didn't know we had down the street as the machines fired upon us. A few bullets whistled past my ears as we ran. I could her Joe turning back once in a while firing back. We ran for a full five minutes before we reached the woods. We made turns together, wanted to stay as a group. I looked back after awhile and I saw that they were no longer behind us. Neither was Melinda. They caught her back there and I knew she was either taken or killed. We cried at our loss. We walked through the woods for hours. We cried for Melinda, but we didn't cry long. We set camp after the fourth hour of walking. We were warm by the fire but we were hungry as well. During our flight we didn't bring any food or ammo which we were low on. Relationships and feelings began to emerge during our time together. Joe warmed up to Heather, Kevin to Savanna. We set out again the next day, and the path we took inside the woods lead us to the freeway. We saw a car with the door wide open and the engine running. Someone was here recently and probably had to run. Unfortunate for him but fortunate for us. We got in and to our dismay we only had a quarter tank of gas. Not enough to get to Crystal Peak. We drove down the freeway and came to a town we knew. Heather spotted a ruined Wendy's and we decided to stop there. We went inside and saw the inside littered with dead bodies and blackened skeletons. We shut our eyes to this horror and continued onward. In the kitchen I saw something I will never forget. My father was laying on the ground. He was here, maybe trying to eat because his body was so skinny it was like looking at a toothpick. I knelt down and tried to revive him but it was no use. That meant my mother and sister were out there somewhere. I cried over my father's body and felt something wet. Blood. They shot him, those machines. I hate them! Kevin and Joe helped me up and told me we needed to eat and get out. And eat we did. Already cooked meat, fries, chicken. After we ate we heard the metal footsteps outside. Terminators. We went in the back and exited that way, taking care to keep quite and duck under the junk. What we saw full our souls with horror. We saw HKs flying in the sky, looking for survivors. SkyNet knew that some survivors were still in this area and sent an army to flush them out. We saw terminators loading people up into the HKs to be carried off to those concentration camps they built. We didn't stay long though, we had to keep moving. We felt like rats, coming out only at night.

"We have to avoid coming out in the open," Joe said fighting back the tears.

"We're going to Crystal Peak. There's a man there called John Connor gathering up survivors," I said quietly.

"That's way out in California! We'll never get there without being caught!" Heather said sadly.

"We will. Once we do we'll figure out what to do," Kevin said.

Which is exactly what we did. Yes I know it is hard to believe. Luck favored us those three years back. We arrived as Crystal Peak about a week later and was welcomed by General Connor. He was gathering survivors and forming a resistance against the machines. We all excepted being a part of it. Kevin lost his family sadly. I was reunited with my sister a month later. She was in one of those concentration camps the machines set up. Joe is an LT of his own unit. He and Heather have two children. Kevin and Savanna are still together. Savanna is a medic for the resistance. Myself, I'm mere one of General Connor's LTs. We are known as Tech-Com, and we'll fight to preserve the human race.


	2. Chapter 2

Nicole Graves 

I remember vividly to this day what happened after the bombs fell from the sky. My name is Nicole Graves and I'm 23 years old. I'm a survivor of the death camps the machines set up after the horrible day known as Judgment Day. I remember what I was doing that day. I was a preschool teacher and I was grading papers at my boyfriend's house when I heard the sound of missiles from the sky. I knew that sound. Ever since 9-11 I research missile, plane, and bomb sounds out of paranoia. I hurriedly made way to my boyfriend's bomb shelter I made him build downstairs. Then came the rumble. I covered my ears to protect myself from the horrible sounds. I don't know how long I was down there for, I lost track of time as I had no watch on at the time. There was no radio to call for help, I was stupid enough not to think of having one put in. I thought about my boyfriend and my family. Were they alright, did they get help? I lived off the food we put down here in the shelter. We put five months worth of food just in case, canned goods, drinks, and chips. I think I was down here about a month when I heard the sound of rubble being moved. I was felled with joy, someone was looking for me! I yelled for help as loud as I could. Help came, but not in human form. What emerged from the rubble filled my very soul with horror. What came to my temporary rescue wasn't human, no. It was a machine, a machine sent by Skynet to round up survivors and carry them off to work. Out of instinct, I tried to run, but the machine roughly grabbed me and hit me with the butt of its gun. When I came too, I found myself surrounded my people coughing, hacking, and dying. I was in one of the camps! Several machines came and opened doors to let people out for laser branding. They held them up with their guns as they guided them down the hallway of the camp. They took me next, and I kicked and screamed when they first grabbed me, yanking me by the hair into the hallway. I wised up quick, they'd have no problem shooting me so I cooperated. They guided me down into a room, much like a room where doctors perform surgery. Roughly, they held me down as they strapped my arms in place. I kicked and screamed as they turned on the laser. It was a red beam, like the ones you see in the Star Wars movies. They guided it toward my right arm, and I screamed in horrific pain as it burned into my flesh. When they were finished, they wasted no time in putting me to work. No time to rest, no time to heal. I looked at my serial number. HG7251. They nudged me with their gun, urging me to hurry up. Throughout the camp there was nothing but death. I felt like one of the Jews in a concentration camp, except they didn't have machines at their backs. The guards were human then, they needed rest and the Jews were also given food. The machines however, did not. They ran day and night, killing, putting us to work. No food and only fifteen minutes of sleep each day. I felt sick each day as I had to left heavy bodies so they could dispose of them orderly. I hated the stench of dead bodies as we lifted some into incineration bowls the machines had made. One day a person collapsed from lack of sleep. The machine didn't hesitate to shoot him dead, filling him with bullets from their guns. I averted my eyes and cried. Why are they doing this to us, what have we done to deserve this? They looked over at me and yelled, "Get back to work." I slowly nodded my head in obedience. What made me cry the most, was that everyday I loaded to bodies children along with the adults. One day a mother of three loaded two of her children into the incineration bowl. After that, she lost it. She did nothing but cry all day, and who could blame her? This wasn't permitted and the machines put her to death. A bullet through the brain. At least it was quick and she was no longer in this world I thought. I was approaching day ten fifteen of my capture. The machines scarcely gave us food. When they did, it was only enough for one bite. People fought over food when it was given, this too, ceased when they started shooting people for fighting over food. Food belonged to the person it was given too, no one else. I made friends with a man named Sean. He was brought here by the machines when he was caught wondering about. He was a black man in his early twenties. He also started a relationship here with a woman name Alice. Funny what tragic times can do and start for people. Alice was a white woman who was caught looting a store for food. He told me that they shared the same cell together for nearly a week. Sean's brother was killed here when tried to fight the machines. Sean and Alice formed a bond here within that time. During the fifteen minute sleep the machines allowed, they would kiss each other to wake the other up. It was joyful to see such love in this time of death. They would often be seen walking hand in hand, his black hand holding her white hand, out into the field to load bodies. No one said anything, race didn't here, not anywhere. The only thing that mattered was living to see another day, to survive.

Day twenty came with the deaths of twelve people. No food came today, the machines thought it best to just work. Alice is ill, her face covered with red sores from burns and cuts. Sean still kisses her to wake her and she still continues to work. They just refuse to die here like the rest of us. Screams. The machines are killing people again, this time for no apparent reason. We run for cover as the shoot people, killing them where they drop. Perhaps there were too many here. The most horrifying is the screams of the children. I take hold of one and shelter her in whatever strength my body has left. I wrapped my arms weakly around her as I quite her. The shootings stop, and everyone is put back to work.

Day twenty four came and Alice still moves, however more slowly. Sean gives all the food he is given to her, to keep whatever strength she has left up, however at the cost of his own health. One day he collapsed due to lack of food, and the machines wasted no time in kicking with their metal feet back to work. I watched as he tried so hard to get back to his feet, but he couldn't. Two men came to help him up. They carried him by shoulders and dragged him to the fields to work, with the machines at their heels. I felt a sudden pain in my back as I feel down. One of the machines hit me hard with his gun. I too, was weak. Fifteen minutes of sleep a day, only bite of food, it all added up soon. They yelled at me and I crawled back to work. The little girl I saved from the shootings that day gave me her food. I took it hungrily and gobbled it up before the machines could see. "Thank you," I told her as she took my hand in her tiny little ones and tried with all her might to help me up. Suddenly, there was an explosion to my left. The walls burst open and in rushed an army of men and women. They began shooting the machines, who were taken completely by surprise. A tall, single man ran forward and yelled, "My name is John Connor! Come with me if you want to live!" In an instant, the workers turned to mad, rabid warriors. They were filled with new energy as they turned on the machines, smashing them, shooting them, even as useless as this was, fighting them with bare fists. Anything was good as long as a machine was down for count. What excited me the most was the children, many of them taking whatever arms they could to fight alongside the adults. I took a machine gun the army handed me and began firing madly. Pay back for all the harm they caused me! I don't remember how many I killed, only that I saw many of them drop before me. I then took hold of the little girl and made way for the HK they reprogrammed into their control. We loaded up the surviving people, then flew out of there. After us and HK came and blew the camp sky high. John Connor introduced himself and told us of his resistance. I told him about the couple I met back at the camp. He assured me they had medical teams back at his base of operations. He told us of Skynet and its plans for us, Humans. An hour later we got back to the base, and medical teams wasted no time in providing treatment and food. I asked what happened to Sean and Alice. I was told by Connor they would live, which felled me with joy. The little girl I saved became close to me. We talked everyday after we were saved. I never did find my family, or my boyfriend, which saddened me the most.

Three weeks after we were saved I was made part of Connor's toddler team, which taught them how to fight, run, and hide. We also taught educational stuff as well, like we did before Judgment Day. The war will be long, but eventually, we'll see it through together.


End file.
